A former top Mizuho Financial Group trader is set to launch a multi-strategy credit hedge fund with US$100 million in seed capital.

Jeffrey Yap is currently on gardening leave from Mizuho, but when the period ends, he'll launch the Asia-focused fund with US$50 million from an unnamed investor. The other half of the seed money will come later in the year, Opalesque reports.

"There seems to be more interest in Asian credit in general at the moment," he said. "It is somewhat in the infancy stage but it has grown over the last couple of years. Asian credit used to be seen only in a hard-currency perspective in the U.S., but post-Lehman the local currency market has grown in size and the borders between offshore and onshore have come down a bit."

Yap is building a five-person team to work with him at the new hedge fund, which will target annual returns of 15% over the London Interbank Offered Rate.

"It's an aggressive target," he concedes, "but Asian credit presents a good opportunity for investors to take advantage of the onshore and offshore market."

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